A Comparative Study of Zhu Shenghao’s and Liang Shiqiu’s Translations of Hamlet from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Skopos theory provides the theoretical framework for a comparative study of two canonical Chinese translations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, namely those by Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu. Working from the same source text, the two translators produced different versions, a divergence attributable to their distinct translational purposes, shaped by differing historical contexts, target audiences, and cultural missions. Zhu Shenghao, translating during the War of Resistance, aimed to popularize Western classics among the general Chinese readership; he predominantly adopted domestication, recreating puns and toning down vulgar expressions to ensure readability and stage performance, with priority given to intratextual coherence. Liang Shiqiu, engaged in a long-term academic project, sought to produce a scholarly reference edition; his translation favors foreignization, preserving cultural proper names, linguistic ambiguities, and Elizabethan vernacular, with primary commitment to intertextual coherence and textual fidelity. Through comparative analysis of cultural imagery, puns, and vulgar language in selected passages, translation purpose is shown to determine strategy selection. The complementary coexistence of Zhu’s version and Liang’s version enriches Hamlet’s Chinese reception, confirming the explanatory power of Skopos theory in evaluating literary translations with divergent social functions. This also offers a valuable lesson for the current retranslation boom.